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Back in early 1992, I needed a headlamp for the Dyane, and bought one from a local mechanic with a sideline in A-series Citroens who shared garage space with the chap who in time became 'Tame Mechanic'. We hit it off, conversation flowed, and I discovered that Laurence was about to start building a car to enter the 2CV 24-hour race to be held that summer at the Mondello Park circuit not far from Dublin. Despite advanced levels of mechanical incompetence, I was soon helping* him by stripping down a 1975 Dyane to use its strengthened PO chassis for the racer. With other members of the team, we built up the car in our spare time over a period of approximately two months. In those early days, competition 2CVs were not the track-focused machines the frontrunners have become; our bright yellow racing duck was taxed and MOT'd, bearing the registration of the scrapped beige 1981 Club that had happened to donate its bodyshell. Shakedown for the 24-hour involved a test day at Mallory Park, a sprint race at Lydden Hill and Laurence's daily commute across Cannock Chase. Come June, come the 24-hour. WRE938X was driven to Ireland in convoy with its tender, an ex-Citroen UK press fleet BX that had been used at the model's introduction nine years and 150000 miles earlier. Mondello was then little more than a strip of tarmac winding around a couple of fields in County Kildare. The 'pits' were constructed from scaffolding and tarps the day after we arrived, in a lay-by off the main straight. The car ran well - up to third place for several hours. We lost our main race engine in the closing stages, replacing it in less than twenty minutes. There's a photo in an article on the race in the September '92 edition of Cars & Car Conversions of a carburettor igniting spectacularly: that was us... We finished just outside the top ten, but we were pleased at that for a first outing in the 24-hour.